I thought of writing a series of posts analyzing Steemit, the first part would've explained how you come to it for money, or for a social network.

The second part would've explained how it fails as a social network.

The third would've explained how it doesn't actually work as a money-earning endeavour.

The conclusion is then obvious.

Anyway, social networks come in all shapes and sizes, and I think you're wrong about them. Reddit is a social network of the sort Steemit professes to want to be like, and it's still working. It has semi-anonymity, and people actually come there for conversations, and it works.

As for Steemit's success having a relation to the success of Steem the coin, I kept saying so, though mostly on chats (voice and written) over last year - Steemit is a PR move to have gotten Steem going. That's the only real reason it's there, at least originally.

Now, Steemit could "fail", and it won't really affect the Steem coin that much. It also goes in the other direction though, yes. The success of Steemit isn't really going to help the coin.

The real purpose of Steemit now is to be a place and way for the whales to make money easily.

You can still make a community on Steemit. But the realization has to be it isn't because of what Steemit offers, but in spite of all of its detriments.

You do make some money, essentially "for free," if you just republish here stuff you're going to write anyway, which has been my plan. But then the question remains if it is worth the "cost."

Because it isn't actually free - it costs you mental energy of dealing with and thinking of the bad actors. The open loops that cryptocurrency and inequal rewards generate, and the loss of control over your content.